


Jack In A Jar

by lindsey_grissom



Series: Crystal Heart [18]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-28
Updated: 2010-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-10 15:38:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindsey_grissom/pseuds/lindsey_grissom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>After the year-that-wasn't, the Doctor visits the last dying place of an old friend and finds something surprising.</i>  Part of the <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/3978">Crystal Heart</a> 'Verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jack In A Jar

He is a tall man, slight. He walks into the still room with the air of someone who owns all he sees. Such confidence. But something is not right. Something is _wrong_. The lean man takes only a few steps and then falters. It is unlike him, so unlike him, this hesitation, this fear.

He wants to turn back, wants to run as far as he can, wherever he can. But he has run from this too many times before, this will be the last chance, he will not run again.

The Doctor approaches the centre of the room, attention fixed on the shattered glass, the slowly evaporating liquids, anything but the empty space where the Face of Boe once lay dead.

He remembers; the death, the final words spoken inside and out, the disappearance of a being who called him _friend_.

He had hoped, but it doesn't matter, he should have known. He cannot come back earlier, too much chance he will run into himself, and he has had enough of paradoxes now.

He had allowed himself to deny the being's death, to hope beyond reason that arriving now would be in time. He had not died alone, not physically, but the Doctor hadn't _known_ and that is somehow worse.

But the Face is gone, just as he had truly known it would be, and in defeat, something he fears now will become familiar to him, he sinks back into the shadows of the room.

No one is here, but still he wishes for a perception filter, maybe then he would not have to face himself.

Such bad choices, in such little time.

True, it has been two years for him and the others, but for the Universe; only one. He has failed Martha, failed her in a way only her refusal to leave with him could show him. Rose. He shies away from that failure, because it wasn't true failure, she lives and that is fantastic, but it still hurts like a death. He has failed Astrid, only hours ago, failed so many aboard that ship. Truly his only success is saving the Queen and her Palace. It is a sad consolation prize.

He blinks back tears at thoughts of the Master. That failure cost the most, to himself and almost to the entire Universe and all of Time. In one moment, he had forgotten an Earth Doctors' truth; not everyone can be saved, and it had almost undone everything the end of the Time War had achieved. Would have, had it not been for Martha. And for Jack.

Jack, who he has failed perhaps most of all. Jack, who only wanted revenge on those who had hurt him. Jack, whose easy acceptance of everything and fierce, insurmountable loyalty drew him in closer than he swore he would ever come again. Jack, who died for him, who lived for him, again and again. Jack, for whom abandonment was expected, forgiven if not forgotten, but never affected his trust. Jack, who would become a head in a jar, would finally die saving the Universe again, thousands of years out of his time, and millions of years older than he should be. Jack, whom he has failed again by being too late. Too damn late to say a proper goodbye.

Jack, who has suddenly appeared in the space the Face of Boe once occupied and looks only a few years older than the last time he saw him. The man-shaped him.

Impossible, his mind screams and he realises that is almost a knick-name for Jack now.

Impossible. Yet the man stands there before him. Impossible. But so very good to see.

The Immortal stretches, finally releasing muscle kinks held for too long. Looks down at himself and smiles; this was the longest he had spent as the Face in quite some time and he is glad to finally let the façade drop.

The smile is bright, familiar and the Doctor almost laughs from his hidden place.

Jack swings his eyes around the room, his home he supposes, the site of one more death. But it was worth it. It is always worth it.

The Doctor freezes as the blue eyes pass over him, unseeing, but eyes that have seen too much. And still they glitter with what he knows is pure Jack.

He senses a presence push against his mind. Gentle. Feeling. And knows Jack is just searching for signs of life. Knows he has been caught. He will have to face his old friend soon. Jack should not know who he is yet, not from such a small touch, but it will not take him long to realise.

Jack stills. Sensing someone, someone far closer than they should be. Alien, but familiar. He pushes his mind again and finds barriers he knows as well as his own. The Doctor. But the Doctor from when?

He knows this death occurs before their reunion, in the Doctor's timeline at least. Has just left the Time Lord with the words that prophesize the near end of the world. But too much was happening when this story was told, and he doesn't know if the Doctor returned or if this is the Doctor from some time after the Master and the year that never was. It was millennia ago, but his memory works well. Only he cannot recall information he never knew.

The Time Lord watches. Emotions pass over the other man's face; deep concentration, but above that, confusion. He takes a step, brings himself out of the dark, and between the two beats of his hearts, the Face is back. Jack is gone.

He feels again the touch against his mind, stronger and then the telepathic link is reformed. He should have realised the first time. Only one man has ever been able to slip so effortlessly passed his mental walls.

_'Doctor.'_ Croaked. The voice old, weak. He is impressed, Jack's acting has always been good, but this is more. This he almost believes again, even with all he has just seen, and all he knows.

_'Jack.'_ A hiss, a curse, and Jack damns himself for not waiting longer to reappear. How badly has he destroyed the timeline this time?

The Doctor senses the fear, the anger aimed not at him, but at his friend, and he moves closer to reassure.

_'You told me Jack. Your parting shot after the Master.'_ He feels Jack relax, feels the tension slip out of the giant mutation, and suddenly finds the being hard to look at. This is not his Jack.

As though sensing the Doctor's change of emotions, which of course he is, the face is gone and Jack stands as he always has, always will. Hands in the pockets of 1940's trousers and his trademark smile upon his face.

"It's good to see you again Doc. Of course technically I only just saw you, and do timelines ever become easy to untangle?" It is vintage Jack, and the Doctor loves it.

"No Jack. They don't." He pauses, tilts his head to the side and Jack grins wider; he loves that look. "But you would know better than me, old man."

It has been a long time since he has met someone so very much older than himself. It is terrifying. But this is Jack. Jack who will always be young at heart.

"Less of the old man, thank you. Besides, what's a few millennia between friends?"

He holds out his arms until the Doctor moves closer, pulls him into a big hug the Doctor finds himself responding to eagerly.

With Jack wrapped around his body and mind, the cloud that has fallen on him does not feel so dark anymore. He has found Jack, as he said he would, so perhaps it won't all be failures this year.

Minutes, then Jack pulls back. Not completely, just enough to look into his eyes.

"Come." And he allows himself to be pulled in the Immortal's wake. The power has shifted between them. Everything is different and confusing.

"Where are we going?" This is not right. He does not ask questions. He has answers.

"To the TARDIS of course, I bet the old girl missed me. Such a beauty she is, so responsive, just the right twist of your fingers in her absorption sockets and…"

"Jack." A warning. A command. And Jack falls silent, a teasing smirk on his face. Perhaps not everything has changed after all.

 

They sit in the kitchen, cups of tea for them both, though Jack begged for coffee. The Doctor finds himself agreeing with his ship; it is good to have Jack back here.

"So. To what do I owe this pleasure of a visit?" The Doctor drops his eyes, the weight of the past few hours falling back onto him. So much death. So much destruction and all for money.

Jack frowns. Something here his very...wrong. He pauses over the word. It is not his favourite. His mind grasps at pieces of memory.

"Doctor. How long has it been since the Master." The flinch at the name is another puzzle piece. The suit, the hair, the despair he thought he would never see again. Not long, but something else has happened. This Doctor is before Donna's return, but after the Master so…

"Christmas. The ship over Buckingham Palace. Saving the world again." He almost smirks at the Doctor's shock. So many of his meetings with the future Doctor make sense now. Their timelines are less of a tangle and more a tight knot.

"Your suit. You wear a different colour after..." Snaps his mouth shut. Timelines.

The Doctor's forehead creases as he thinks. "So I see you again?"

Jack grins. "Oh yes. Many times. This you, the ones after." He pauses, and the Doctor senses Jack's fear he has said too much. He hasn't. It is nice to know this is not their last meeting. "You just keep popping up in my timeline Doc. What can I say? I'm irresistible." A wink. Classic Jack.

"You're impossible Jack." And he waits for the man to freeze, for the broad shoulders to tense as they did a year ago. Jack laughs.

"That I am Doc. That I am." Something is going to happen between them. Something that will take away the poison in their friendship. It is reassuring to know he will not fail at this either.

Jack drains his cup, stands, hands back in pockets and faces the Doctor.

"I must be off. I have a meeting in a few minutes with...well _you_ actually. Can't keep you waiting can I?" Another wink, a chuckle and the Doctor wonders how the man can tell time without a watch. Something else for him to discover, he supposes. Like the telepathy. But there is something...

"Jack, the Face of Boe?" Because he really wants to know about that.

"He was me. Always has been, except, it's more of a projection. A mental suggestion that I am in fact a giant face in a jar. Look." And there is the Face again, and for some reason the Doctor does not find it strange that the Face can fit in a space too small to contain him.

Then Jack is back in front of him, and his own jaw is hanging open. He snaps it closed.

"A trick I picked up a few million years ago. Remembered what Martha told you about this day, and what Rose mentioned of your first meeting with the Face, and well, when it didn't show up on the platform at the end of Earth, figured my joke wasn't so much a joke as the truth.

"So you've been like that for..." _Rassilian._ To be perceived as a head for so long, how had the man stayed sane?

"Oh no! I tried, but you know me. Not much of a night life as a head, I can tell you. No, I've been me most of the time. I remember the tales of the Face and later, you helped fill me in." The Doctor makes a mental note of that. "So whenever the Face of Boe was supposed to be seen, it was, and the rest of the time I'm just me." As though he were _just_ anything.

"Now I really need to go. Because I'm late, and actually, I don't think you've ever let me live this down, you sneaky bastard." He is pulled into another hug, and he clings back.

A whisper in his mind; _'Not a failure. Never a failure my Doctor. You'll see.'_ His hearts change their beats.

Then Jack is gone from around him and heading across the room.

"You'll see me again this year Doc. A much, much younger me, with only two white hairs and a few wrinkles. If I might make a suggestion?"

He nods, because his throat is too tight to speak.

"There is a key for fixing every problem, Doctor. You just have to find the right one and use it well." A smile. Then gone. Vanished.

But the impression on the Doctor's mind remains. A link established. He will have to find out about that too. So much to learn. He wanders back to the control room.

Absently he flicks at the controls. Letting the TARDIS decide their destination, he realises he feels light now. The pain hasn't gone, but it is less.

The TARDIS engines roar to life. As he begins to fade into the Vortex, on the monitor he sees Jack embracing a man. More than embracing.

Well, that is something else to think about.

And then he too is gone.

 

**End.**


End file.
